Thursday, July 16, 2015

Homeowners Ann Reynolds and Doug Rankin Encourage Neighbors to
“Kiss My Grass” - Dream Clients
not only Chose an Organic Lawn, but Started a Movement

By Kathy
Litchfield

WEST
HARTFORD, CONN. – Ann Reynolds and Doug Rankin, with their two babies in tow,
clearly remember the day they showed up at the state’s capital to lobby for the
preservation of the K-8 school grounds pesticide ban in 2010.

“People looked cross eyed at us,
like how out of place. We were the only family there,” said Reynolds, “but we
were so invigorated by it, with a sense of wow, there’s so much going on. As
parents it was so in our best interest to have a bigger say. It was eye
opening.”

Over the last 10 years or so, the
couple found themselves “hyper aggravated” by all of the little pesticide
spraying signs they spotted. So, they decided to counter these signs by
creating one of their own. It reads “Kiss My Grass” and “Pesticide Free” and is
available via the website they designed to promote “Grass Roots West Hartford, a
movement among residents to reclaim control over the livability of our town,”
they said.

“While there
are many things outside of our control, we can most definitely choose not to
pollute our neighborhoods with pesticides and herbicides. And so starts a grassroots effort among
neighbors to make our lawns, parks and schools once again safe places for all
of us to roam, play, walk, breath, drink, and care for our families, children
and pets,” they wrote, and the idea is catching on.

Co-founded in March 2015 with friend
Kim Hughes, they held a kick-off event that drew over 50 local residents and
their state representative, Joe Verrengia.Grass Roots West Hartford invites people to get involved, choose a
pesticide free lawn and spread the word. They already have over 325 Facebook
fans, many of whom write supportive comments and share photos of their lawns
with the signs.

So far,
purely on a volunteer basis, the three have distributed 250 lawn signs, placed
an order for 500 more, and also offer T-shirts. They’ve marketed the movement
at local events including “Celebrate West Hartford” and through the NOFA
Organic Land Care Program.

To further
show their commitment to organic lawns, they also hired Todd Harrington of
Harrington’s Organic Land Care in Bloomfield, Conn. to manage their own
half-acre lawn at their suburban home.

“Ann and Doug are dream clients, of
course,” said Harrington. “They are really concerned citizens and activists
when it comes to pesticides. You don’t often find people so passionate about
wanting to get people in the region away from pesticides.But they have children and are educated
consumers who understand plants, and are fully committed to their mission.”

Harrington began working on the
Reynolds/Rankin lawn this year and so far has applied corn gluten, aerated and
activated compost teas and custom blended fertilizers. He plans to seed this
fall with appropriate drought-tolerant grasses.

“(Doug and
Ann) have a much higher threshold than most people when it comes to weeds.
We’re building up the fertility of their soil following soil test
recommendations. They had never treated their lawn before this so anything we
do will be a benefit,” said Harrington, who always promotes food gardens over
lawns, and delivered a yard of his “super soil” - a soil mix generated at his
lab that grows “phenomenal nutrient dense food” - to the couple’s vegetable
garden beds where they grow lettuce, nasturtiums, peas, kale and even native
corn.

“We toured
Todd’s facility and learned about the super soil to enhance our garden. We’re
pleased with his work and happy that we can support a local business that is
doing the right thing,” said Rankin, who originally met Todd through Bill Duesing,
former executive director of CT NOFA.

Rankin has
been volunteering at CT NOFA conferences for years and even took the Organic
Land Care Accreditation Course in 2005 to educate himself. He remembers leaving
and feeling incredibly inspired by Todd Harrington’s and Chip Osborne’s
presentations in particular.

He grew up in West Hartford and
remembers his father, a physician and naturalist, being a “late adaptor” to
modern medicines.

“He believed
real health came from your diet, your sleep, not smoking, basic things. His
holistic view of the world, unbeknownst to me, probably rubbed off on me,” he
said.

Reynolds, native to Wethersfield,
recalled attending “Fashion Week” in Manhattan one week and the next week,
being invited by Doug to volunteer at a NOFA organic farming conference.

“So I went,
and then I thought everybody should come to this. It moved my world,” she said.
“Doug’s always been way ahead of the curve. As a single guy in his 30s he
bought into the CSA thing before it was common vernacular. On his own he bought
a farm share meant to feed four!”

When they’re not hosting gatherings,
distributing lawn signs and organizing for GMO labeling, organic lawns and
Grass Roots, the couple operates their own small business as wine importers and
wholesalers. They work with as many wineries as they can that “practice
legitimate organic, sustainable and biodynamic farming practices in their wine
making,” said Rankin, and distribute the wine to retail stores and restaurants
in Connecticut.

Along with raising their two
children, now aged 6 and 7, the couple is hard at work promoting and hoping
that their message, through the “Kiss My Grass” lawn signs and outreach
efforts, will spread far and wide.

“The
chemical industry in the United States is really an unregulated free for all,”
said Rankin. “We’re trying to get people to make smart decisions voluntarily
now. There is a lot of work that has to be done. The chemical companies are
strong. We have to build a legitimate grassroots
movement. The choice of the word
‘grassroots’ is the operative word. The way to make a
permanent change here is to change people’s attitudes and that’s what we’re
trying to do.”

Thursday, April 16, 2015

WESPORT
-- Tom Barry used to come home from work with his pants stained blue from the
herbicides he had applied on golf courses all day long. The last thing he
wanted was for those pants to go into the wash with his family’s clothes.

“It was always a question mark,
whether the pesticides and herbicides would cause health problems,” said the
father of two, aged 3-1/2 and 20 months. “I realized I didn’t want that
question mark in my life.”

Barry’s interest in organics was
sparked during an innovative research project in the environmental effects of
home lawn fertilization he completed during his master’s degree work in
turfgrass and soil science at the University of Connecticut. He studied how
nitrates leach out of soil to contaminate groundwater and was able to quantify,
based on the rate of nitrogen, how much is taken up by the plant, how much
stays in the soil and how much leaves the system, he said.

While
managing the organic arm of a local landscape company, Barry became NOFA
accredited (CT course, 2010) and two years ago, embarked upon a new career as
the grounds manager and field care specialist at Greens Farms Academy in
Westport, Conn., an independent college preparatory day school for grades PreK-12.

At this forward-thinking school
encompassing about 42 acres, the grounds, athletic fields, landscape gardens,
building shrubbery, meadows and vegetable garden which helps to supply some
vegetables and herbs for the cafeteria,are all
managed and maintained using organic methods, a testament to the effectiveness
of forgoing synthetic pesticides, Barry said.

“It was a nice culture to come into
because the school had already embraced organic ideology and that was part of
why I was hired, so they were willing to support the maintenance team to
purchase additional resources necessary when you don’t have the convenience of
synthetic pesticides,” he said.

Academy Head of School Janet
Hartwell said the school had made a commitment to fulfill sustainability
initiatives with organic land care before Barry was hired.

“This
is very important and we know it is the right thing to do,” Hartwell said. “It
is the safer, better way for all children, to be away from pesticides. And
we’re fortunate to have Tom who is exceptional and had the experience we
sought. He has done a great job. Quite honestly, our fields have never looked
better!”

One
of Barry’s first projects was to manage a recent overhaul of the school’s 15
acres of athletic fields. Some were well established with mature soils; others
were brand new and extremely compacted.

“They
needed some tender loving care,” said Barry, who implemented an aggressive
cultural program including aerating three times a year on all the fields, and
utilizing a new overseederand liquid
organic fertilizing equipment.

“We alternate our aeration practices
with core aeration, deep tine aeration and linear decompaction and we treat
each field individually in terms of how we approach the fertilizing program, by
the age of the fields,” he said. “We also soil test regularly to monitor the
effects of our fertilization so we can adjust accordingly.”

Another 10-15 acres of the grounds
are grassy lawns and landscape beds, which receive organic applications once or
twice a year. The addition of many annual beds have added color and interest to
the grounds, said Barry, who chooses to plant natives as often as possible.

Last year on Earth Day, the lower
school (grades PreK-5) science students and faculty installed 12 native trees
including redbud and white spruce.

Students, parents, faculty and staff
also got involved in the planning and installation of a 6,500 sq. ft. butterfly
garden/meadow. On a sunny Saturday, about 75 volunteers planted 3,500 plugs of
native plants including milkweed, butterfly weed, joe pye weed and native
goldenrod. While they are struggling with an overrun of the invasive mugwort,
Barry said the meadow is beautifying the area, encouraging birds and beneficial
insects and mostly thriving.

Lower School (grades PreK-5) Science
Teacher Jackie Tran, who recruited volunteers for the school-wide plantings,
also integrates curriculum in math, science and writing into the organic
vegetable garden she oversees at the Academy. Students start seeds in the
greenhouse, transplant them into 15-20 raised beds inside their 32-foot by
40-foot garden, harvest them and deliver the vegetables to the cafeteria where they
are used in school lunches. Kitchen waste is also composted on site.

“Kids are able to study where their
food comes from and they’re experiencing food from every aspect of the cycle.
We do as many cooking classes as we can. All of this helps them form a
connection to their food and food culture, food safety and tasting new things
like purple carrots, or red and yellow striped heirloom carrots,” said Tran,
who holds a master’s degree in environmental conservation education.

“We
use the garden as a place to insert environmental literacy for students. We are
giving them the tools to make decisions that are sustainable, and understand
their impacts so they can be our great world leaders and think about these
types of topics as they’re making environmental decisions.”

Barry is looking forward to
implementing a new planting plan that will surround the construction of a brand
new performing arts building on a section of campus bordering the marshlands
directly adjacent to the Long Island Sound. Barry and his team were able to
work closely with the landscape architect who designed the planting plan, to
substitute native plants for the shrubbery and landscaping around the building.
For instance, instead of boxwoods they are planting inkberries; instead of
Siberian carpet cypress, low bush blueberries; and instead of Korean firs, eastern
red cedars.

“I tried to match the form and
function of the plants they had on the original design with a native
alternative, working also with a native plant consultant who knew what would
work where. The (landscape architect) was very open minded,” said Barry, who
also replaced the specification for a Kentucky bluegrass seed mix in the design
with a turf type tall fescue that is drought tolerant, requires less nutrient
inputs and wears well over time.

“My plan is to irrigate it until
established, then stop, and use minimal fertilization as well,” said Barry, who
loves his work and hopes his sharing will help others solidify decisions about
organic management.

“The
NOFA course, the teachers, other professionals and people I’ve met since,
really inspired me and the more I learned about organics, and the questions
about pesticides, the more I knew this is what I wanted to do,” he said.

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About Us

The Organic Land Care Program is managed by the Northeast Organic Farming Association. The OLC has an Accreditation program for organic land care professionals based on the NOFA Standards in Organic Land Care. We also have a number of publications and programs to support homeowners and gardeners working to maintain their yard, garden and lawn without harmful chemicals.